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MEMBER DIARY

Of Tea Parties, Tempests, and Teapots

The Tea Party Patriots and the Claremont Institute both scheduled shindigs to welcome the Freshman class of Republicans to Washington DC on the same day, at overlapping times. It’s a classic tempest in a teapot. Leaving aside hurt feelings, territoriality and resentments it’s important to make a few points.

The Tea Party Patriots event begins with brunch and goes 11:30AM to 3:30PM. The Claremont event runs from 12:30PM to 3:30PM. Both events have a hard stop so currently serving Republicans can get over to Congress to oppose the Socialist Democrats as the Red Queen Pelosi commences her revenge plan to ram more spectacularly bad legislation [preposition] America’s [body part] starting at 4:00PM in the lame duck session.

First, after Republicans won a historic victory on November 2, 2010, it’s critical for those Congressmen and women who actually get to vote during the Lame Duck session to come out of the gate strategically smart enough and united enough to defeat the Socialist Democrats and their destructive agenda. Most freshmen are not in the Lame Duck congress, but have a few months to get their feet on the ground.

Second, I’m sure that newly elected Senators and Representatives who owe their victory to Tea Party voters and donors are thankful to the Tea Parties for their assistance. It would only be polite to show up at the Tea Party event and shake some hands.

Third, the Tea Party event is more likely to emphasize the principles and values that unite We the People with our Republican public servants than the Claremont event, which will be full of lobbyists looking for “friends” to help them get favorable tax treatment and earmarks. If our newly elected Representatives and Senators don’t already share our Tea Party principles and values, they aren’t going to learn them at one Tea Party event. So it won’t be the end of the world if they attend Claremont’s event. Actually, as EE notes, Claremont is one of the most conservative organizations that exists anywhere. Freshmen will make valuable alliances at either or both events.

Fourth, We the People will respect our public servants according to what they do in Congress, not according to whose shindigs they attend.

Fifth, We the People are watching what the 112th Congress does on the job. If they remember what the phone lines and fax machines were like during the Obamacare cramdown, that’s what it will be like from now on.

I will finish up with a note to the 112th Congress.

We surround you. That isn’t just a slogan, it’s a fact. We the People outnumber you.

You are not our masters, but our servants. You are supposed to represent us.

An awake and aware citizenry watching everything you do in Congress is the new normal. Don’t forget why you were sent to Congress, to restore and secure the individual freedoms of We the People. You were not sent to get your share of goodies for your district, your friends, your family, yourself, or campaign donors. You were sent to restore freedom to the land, to peel away thousands of pages of harmful regulation and taxation, to de-fund and dissolve departments that don’t work or that work to destroy American business and oppress the American people, and to begin a long lifetime’s worth of work reducing the oppressive, leviathan U.S. Government to its Constitutional limits.